The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-07-15
WAGES AND THE TARIFF.

WAGES AND THE TARIFF.
Whist weala h the Results Of tAe AAsp-
s,oa ef . Hrss-Trsas Foley.
/, The rate Of wages il like the price OF
any thing else that is offered for sale.
Primarily. it il governed by the law Of
supply and demand. II two men.
equally competent ask for employ
ment At certain occupation. or to do
. single piece Of work. the ono will get
the job who asks the lowest wages.
The converse Of this Is equally true II
. mans services are desired by two
different employers for exactly the
same kind of service, he will take the
offer of the one who makes the best
proposition as to wages. But it is also
true that the price of any kind Of labor
in the community is also affected by
the scarcity or the abundance Of work.
men competent to do the work. II
workmen are scarce, the rate Of wages
will rise; If workmen are plenty and
but little work offered, the rate Of
wages will fall Supply and demand
affect this market precisely as they do
the wheat market
But, aside from this, the tariff affects
the rate of wages, not only Of the men
engaged in protective industries. but
of all working-men, even down to day
laborers upon the streets or upon
farms. 1t is fact, and one which can
not be disputed, that the working-men
of foreign countries are paid at much
lower rate than are men doing exactly
the same kind of work in the United
States. The cost of labor is one of the
prime factors in the price Of any man
ufactured article. 1t follows, then,
that q general reduction of the tariff,
or its entire abolition upon any line of
manufactured goods. would compel
one of two things to be done, viz:
either the manufacturer must reduce
the cost Of the labor necessary to pro-
tect it by cutting down the wages of
his employees. or he must shut up his
mandatory and quit the attempt to
compete with foreign manufacturers
who have the advantage Of him in the
price of labor.
Right here is where the advocates of
he free-trade policy attempt to bcfog
the issue. They take the ground that
the profits Of manufacturing are Excess
sive in this country, and TINT, if our
manufacturers chose to take only rea-
sonable profit, they would still afford to
pay the same rate of wages they do
now, and yet sell their goods at such a
price as to enable them to compete sue
cessfully with their foreign rivals.
That their position regarding the ex-
cessive profits of manufacturing is e.
roneous, Is shown by this one fact:
that money is very plenty in the coun-
try, and can be had for u lower rate of
interest than at any time during the
past quarter Of century. If there
were any exorbitant profits to be made
out of manufacturing, it is not to be
supposed that sharp business men
would loan money at from four to six
per cent, when they could make twice
or thrice that amount-yes, even forty
per cent, if we are to believe our free
trade friends-by going into manufact-
uring. The idle money which accumu-
lated in the great money centers dur
ing the past two years would have been
at once invested in great manufacture
ing plants. and its owners would have
been reaping the golden harvest which
the free traders say is in the power of
every American manufacturer.
Let us now suppose that the people
of the United States were suddenly
stricken with financial insanity; that
the free-trade ideas were adopted, and
all protective laws repealed. The stand
ard of wages then, in all factories and
mills employed in the making of goods
previously protected by the tariff, would
be the lowest rate prevailing in Eu-
ropean countries-Great Britain, for
instance. Our manufacturers would
either have to close their works or put
the cost of production down to the
European standard. 1t is plain that
the rate of wages would have to go
down, because, practically, there are
but two factors influencing the cost of
any manufactured product; first, the
price of the raw material; second, the
price of labor. The price of the raw
material is regulated, even our free
trade friends will admit, by the law of
supply and demand. If there is a
good crop of cotton the price goes
down; if there is brisk demand for
cotton by manufacturers the price goes
up, as it also does if the crops should
lie partial failure and the supply be
thus limited. So it will be seen that
the cost of the raw material will be be-
yond the control of the manufacturer,
and practically he will be obliged, in
order to reduce the price of produc-
ton. to reduce the cost of labor.
The most likely thing to occur un-
der this state of affairs would be a gen.
eral strike among the workmen in all
protected industries. Foreign goods
would pour into this country, the tar.
if barrier being taken away, and our
market would be occupied by them. 1t
would be impossible for the strike tc
bo cucoo, Sful md tho man xrOulI o;tl,ov